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Mobile-phone data shows virus crushing some retail hot spots
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Shoppers are shopping in Myeongdong commercial area in Seoul in July 2014. (Shutterstock/File)
M
obile-phone data -- a proxy measure for crowds -- is showing just how dramatically some of the world’s retail hot spots have cleared out as coronavirus spreads.
In Seoul’s Myeongdong shopping district, mobile devices plummeted about 67 percent last weekend, compared to the weekend traffic four weeks earlier, according to UberMedia data analyzed by Webster Pacific.
In Milan’s Quadrilatero della Moda, or fashion square, the crowds were down about 38 percent last weekend compared to a month ago, based on the analysis of mobile devices in the area.
The data is reflected as a seven-day simple moving average to account for the fact that crowds are usually larger on weekends.
Read also: No panic buying, please: Retail associations urge consumer restraint amid COVID-19 scare
It captures a portion of overall devices on a given day, serving as a proxy for overall devices and, therefore, people with such devices in their pockets. The size of the sampled areas differs in Milan and Seoul.
Coronavirus cases climbed to 97,877 globally on Thursday. There have been 3,383 deaths.
